ABOUT ME
I have had an interest in wildlife from an early age collecting taxidermy from the age of twelve, I was given a little owl for my birthday. This fascinated me on how the taxidermist had done the bird, its body, eyes and how he had preserved it. My collection grew bigger to round about fifteen birds, now in my early twenties it was time to have a go, with no proper materials and just an old Victorian book to work from I produced an overfilled crow with ball bearings for its eyes. A piece of work I wish I had kept. I struggled on for a few more years then found the guild of taxidermists, attending my first conference at York in 1995. Walking proudly in with my over filled, cross-eyed, long necked sparrow hawk I was bowled over. This was my first encounter with top quality taxidermy, the members of the guild were very kind with their comments, but moved on to strong constructive criticism. This was a steep learning curve for me but with help from members of the guild my confidence grew and my work improved.

Then in 1998 I travelled to Helsinki to the European taxidermy competition attending talks given by the top European and International taxidermists gave me a tremendous boost to improve my work further. The goal was to one day compete at the World taxidermy show in the USA and in 2003 this happened. I entered two mounts the first a hooded crow on a beach scene and the second a hooded crow on a stone face covered in snow and ice. Collecting a second place ribbon for the first crow then a first placed ribbon for my second crow later that day at the award banquet I awarded best professional bird 2003 this was a dream come true. Returning to England being the first British taxidermist to have achieved this award made me very proud and helped me concentrate harder on the quality of my taxidermy. Then in 2004 a decision was made to concentrate on bird taxidermy only.

I attended the world show again in 2005 using all I had learnt over the last ten years I gave it my all.

Taking three mounts and six birds this was a major task I received four second place ribbons, two first placed ribbons, best professional bird 2005 then the added award of Best professional competitor 2005.

I am still striving to improve my work, constantly learning new techniques, materials and not to forget the most important thing of all to watch, learn and understand the birds I work with and persevere to bring the birds I work on back to life.

Jackdaw - 86.5%
These birds averaged 86.5% which gave each bird second place red ribbon. I am honored to say this piece of work now has a place in the show room of eight-times world champion bird taxidermist, Frank Newmyer of Michigan USA

Click here to see scoresheet

Guild of Taxidermists U.K
2nd Placed Professional Bird 2008